A short-lived experiment, set up in 1927 to run De Vecchis’ mass drying method on the current Siemens site. Unfortunately, 1927-28 was a severe winter and frost got into the beet crop. There were improvements in the factory in 1928-29 but problems persisted. Electricity had to be taken from a local supply, as there was no time to install a generating plant. The factory was listed in the early 1930s as ‘Sugar Beet & Crop Driers Ltd., sugar manufacturers’ (tel: 23) but was finally knocked down around this time.
This is one of a series of aerial photos in the Historic England Archive